Prologue
Not sure whether it’s going to turn out to be a drab account of what all happened, or I would be left with not enough words to describe what I experienced. Whatever happens, I have decided to start writing, and well that’s what counts.
Chapter 1
Before I begin with it all, I need to tell you how it all started. Sounds cliché but well that’s pretty much about it; how else do I put it. It all began with the lofty ideals, that meant no settling for any destination short of 8-10 days and sticking to the Europe. The word Europe itself is so enchanting, any destination on that continent had enuf meat on it for me dig my teeth.
Bro connected on one end, parents from the other end conferenced with the to be groom, and that is me. Do we need to invite these may people, why can’t we have the venue as the beach side, why does it cost so much there, can we do away with that ceremony, do we really need to buy so much stuff….Increase the level of complication by adding opinions and suggestions given by friends, family and colleagues, on what and what not. By the time it was time to decide - what, when, how – there was not much time left!!
With all this running on my mind, my phone bills shooting up, my personal time taking neat plunge, my count of movies not moving ahead for months, I was just catching just three-six hours of sleep. I am not including the fitness regime and the diet checks which were self enforced. I am barely hitched and to cover my big fat ass after getting hitched I had to already use some neat US dollars wired from Ohio and Chicago. In the midst of all this there is something very important which happens. I guess it must happen to everyone. Reality dawns.
After extensive reading on the net; and re-checking the total expenses for getting hitched and what I had saved so far; I decided, at least ‘Ireland’ or ‘Switzerland’. The castles, the inviting country side, the drives, the restaurants, the people, the music, the architecture, well everything was like a dream come true…Very soon Ireland and Switzerland look impossible with their soaring air fares and to top it all I am warmly welcomed to the new term ‘Double’. Well this is the word which now is going to be the moolah everywhere I go and whatever I do. Everything now on would mean ‘double’. It starts from a table for ‘two’, tickets for ‘two’, ‘double room’, twin sharing, two cups of tea…
I agonizingly work out a neat sum for the destinations with the travel guys. There when I double it up (for reasons obvious), it just looks, what should I say, the best word would be ‘obscene’. Before ‘obscene’ becomes ‘catastrophe’; I realized, I need to better stop dreaming. So then I start thinking more rationally…If not Alps, what next? Himalayas. We (that’s another term which I got used to after the term ‘double’) left the entire range from Singapore-Malaysia-Thailand-Bali-Andaman-Sri Lanka-Maldives – Mauritius for the sea factor. We were not very keen on a ‘beachy-affair’.
Between Nepal and Bhutan – Bhutan definitely stands out as exotic. Tibet was in fact more, but the accessibility was a concern. Nepal definitely was tempting for what all could be done, for that price, yet the political disturbance and the commercial aspect of Nepal dissuaded us.
By now, I am sure you would be thinking, why am I thinking so much, choose something, choose a place and get going, end the ordeal of going through the list of possible destinations for the umpteenth time.
Chose Bhutan. Period. So I thought.
Chapter 2
Once the destination was narrowed to Bhutan; it was time to short list the best deal. The players whom I had short listed – Cox and Kings, SOTC, KUONI and Makemytrip. Absolutely stunning deals on Makemytrip but an equally sad support and response from the team on the destination and details. Decided to drop Makemytrip. Between SOTC and Cox & Kings, I found better value for money with Cox and Kings. Both the persons I talked to from SOTC and Cox & Kings offered good advice on what to do and what can be done with the budget I had…
The month I decided to travel, which was October, was the peak season for tourists to visit Bhutan. Indian travelers got lesser preference versus the ‘firangs’. Which meant, Cox and Kings was not able to get the published hotels for stay, and had to look for the equivalent. Also, the air fares were the highest during that time. For a moment I was thinking can I make it to Bhutan at least?
By this time it was very clear that :
You can enter Bhutan :
Via Land : Fly till Bagdogra – take the land route to Bhutan’s entry point Phuntsholing. Get your clearance to enter Bhutan and then begin your travel in Bhutan.
Via Air: You can fly into Bhutan from only the following places – New Delhi, Kolkata, Bagdogra, Gaya, Guwahati, Dhaka, Kathmandu and Bangkok. You can fly only Druk Air i.e. Royal Bhutan Airways.
I evaluated the option of using the land route to enter Bhutan. It would require a lot of travel on the land and for the number of days I had in mind, it would have been a killer. I didn’t mind increasing the number of days for my stay in Bhutan, but the price per day I had to cough up was superseding the amount I would spend by flying into Bhutan. So drop land route.
Via Air, whether I choose New Delhi, Kolkata or Bagdogra, as the point of departure, all of it involved an overnight stay, as the flights to Bhutan were early in the morning. Now New Delhi appeared lucrative as it could have been clubbed with a good nostalgia trip round the city, but the air fare from New Delhi to Bhutan simply put was almost like travelling to London. So New Delhi got dropped. Between Kolkata and Bagdogra – Bagdogra to Bhutan was cheapest; yet to reach from Bangalore to Bagdogra was expensive and required a lot transit time.
This meant fly from Bangalore – Kolkata, stay overnight, take the early morning flight to Bhutan, on your way return, fly into India at Kolkata and then take return flight to Bangalore. Now I was getting the feel of what it meant to be travelling out of the country looked like. The word transit time, hop over, stop-over all these words had the real meaning now…
Now Cox and Kings was entrusted to get the best deal and the tickets from Kolkata – Paro return.
Chapter 3
Cox and Kings blocks the tickets, blocks the hotel reservations, payments are wired, acknowledgement is sent, passports scanned are shared, phone calls are made, mails are exchanged, finally the vouchers are sent and everything is in place for the travel.
Now I begin to spend more time reading about experiences of people who have travelled to Bhutan before me. Their experience, their observations, recommendations and their first hand reports. I feel the need the need for Lonely Planet Guide for Bhutan. Can you believe it, not a single store in Bangalore, has it in stock. I happened to go to Landmark sale, in Forum. In their Travel section, you could find so much to read on Tibet, Nepal and the entire South East Asia. Not a single book on Bhutan. The only book I got was Buttertea at Sunrise by Britta Das. It was not what I had in mind, I was looking for a guide to navigate through Bhutan. I knew that not many people travel to Bhutan, but was not aware it would be so sparse…
The next predicament was expenses to be borne en route and during the stay at Bhutan. What was included in the package from Cox & Kings was – air fare, stay, bfast, all local transfers, entry fees, passes, tolls everything other than lunch, dinner and personal shopping. So how do you spend when you are overseas:
1. Credit Card – Credit Card and ATMs are rare to spot in Bhutan and only the nationalized banks of Bhutan are in operation there. There are few Banks which allow, CC transactions in Bhutan and it takes more than 24 hrs for clearance.
2. Travelers Check – That is one of the safest and widely used form in Bhutan. Here comes the complication. Ngultrum the official currency in Bhutan is pegged at Indian Rupee. Since I am an Indian National, they cannot issue travelers check to me in USD/GBP for use in Bhutan as INR is in use in Bhutan. Citibank, American Express denied.
3. Cash – Fine with 1000 INR in circulation, it’s not that difficult to carry cash. Here comes another complication –500 and 1000 rupees not in use in Bhutan. Then I am left with bills of 100 and 50s. Imagine the number of bundles of money to carry!!
Checked with some friends who had been Bhutan before, got a confirmation that 500 and 1000 were in use in Bhutan. However a query of LP post Thorn Tree replied negative. Anyways since got a mixed response, I decided to travel with both and see how things turn out there in person.
The other travel formality is the Visa – which is exempted for Indian Nationals. However there are entry and exit documentation, for which I did not receive very good information either from the travels or on the Net. It was a slightly grey area, which I decided to tackle as it when I would face it…
Stay in Kolkata – Cox n Kings gave some leads; friends office and old flat mates gave some leads, directly got in touch with Hotel O2 for the reservations. With that almost all the ground work was done for the take off…
Chapter 4
Fast forward, the date September 30. It is the historic date when the Ayodhya verdict. The whole nation is under a threat of incidents of violence and disruption of communal harmony, considering the sensitivity of the situation. The nation has already seen what happened in 1992; and hence the whole nation is praying that the history does not repeat itself. Schools, colleges, closed in advance. Some states put on high alert, with security beefed up.
Oct 1 is when I need to fly from Bangalore to Kolkata.
Sept 30, Wipro declares a half day; I reach home early, shops around my residence are closing down, streets are barren, the verdict is expected to be out by 3:30. The verdict is out, all the three parties involved Hindus, Muslims and ‘Nirmohi Akhada’. The country receives the verdict with grace and no incidents of violence are reported across the nation.
Amidst this turmoil, I pack.
Reach Bangalore International Airport; for the Spic jet flight to Kolkata. Had a simple breakfast from the Times Out.
Arrive at Kolkata Domestic Airport, and I would rate the airport in terms of cleanliness and facilities, below average.
Call Hotel O2 for the Airport transfer; get picked in a new Mahindra Xylo; welcome to rash driving on the streets. Young boys came to pick us up, not sure if they had valid license to drive. Anyways the airport is just 5 minutes away, so before you could get to know what happened, you are at the airport.
The reception guys are actually courteous and organized. The rooms are okay, for the sake of transit, that price is fine. Because of the heat; decide to stick to the restaurant at the hotel for lunch. Surprise. Look at the menu and you will see that; no Bengali delicacies, all Chinese and North Indian. Quite disappointed we settled for Biryani, chicken Tikka Masala and rotis. Food – average.
Evening we take a cab to Park Street – 300 rupees, a partial rip off. The driver figuring out we are new, tries his luck for taking us for a ride. We hop, somewhere mid of Park Street. Walk around for some time, reach Flurys. Link - http://www.flurysindia.com/Menu_new.html. Quite surprised at our luck to spot, Koshy’s like place, ambience and menu. My bias for Koshy’s continues though. We see two other tourists, who have landed at Flurys and are referring their Lonely Planet Guides, on what’s the best to order there. We pick some chocolates for a friend back home, have their Flurys special tea, and walk out.
It’ s getting dark, the streets are getting crowded, and we have a long way to go, we hop into a cab, get down at Haldiram’ s next to our Hotel on O2 Road. Neatly smack away ‘roshogulla’, ‘ras malai’ and ‘mishti doi’. Early simple light dinner; sleep early, get up and get going for the big take off the next day.
Chapter 5
We reach at the International Airport at Kolkata, which I would again rate as below average for cleanliness and facilities. We walk in with the tickets and passports to be told by the security that the boarding has not yet been started for Druk Air. Soon we find the board where the status of each flight is displayed and also we find that Druk Air is still not on the display board. There are other equally anxious co passengers for Druk Air who are also in similar state as us. We spot loud, noisy, pompous bunch 10-12 aunties in their late 40’s all ready to take off on a vacation. Later we figured out, they too were for Bhutan.
About an hour and a half before takeoff; they start the security check-in. We walk in, get our check-in baggage scanned and labeled. We reach the Druk Air counter, these noisy aunties have hijacked the counter and almost created a ruckus there. We fill in the forms handed over, request for seats on the left hand side, and proceed for Immigration check. I am praying to let me clear the Immigration w/o any hassles; I usually have the knack to get into trouble where not required. We clear the Immigration check with some basic questions ‘pehli baar’ and ‘ghooomne jaa rahe ho’…
We reach the security check and hand baggage scanning counter. The security personnel frisks and sensing the wads of notes in my packet ( I was carrying 100 and 50) asks ‘Cash’; I nodded and said ‘Yes’.
Equally sad was the waiting lounge. We can make our calls to our parents, inform that all formalities for takeoff from India is cleared, and that we are waiting in the lounge. Final call for the passengers travelling by Druk Air to Paro. We head for our first International flight.
The crew at Druk Air is very warm and pleasant, a small aircraft and within no time of boarding we are in the air…
The pilot, informs the passengers that we were flying past the snow capped Himalayan mountains. The snow capped mountains looked like an iceberg in an frozen ocean. However the view was spectacular, and for the first time, I see how snow covered mountains look like, for real.
In no time, it’s time for landing, and as I read before, it was definitely one of the most complicated and an unique landing I had never seen before. There are cliffs, there are houses, there is a river and there is a runway. How the pilot manages, well that’s for him to figure out; we had a breath-taking view. Smooth landing at Paro.
Chapter 6
Step out of the aircraft and you can see the cozy airport of Paro; and also you get the first feel how the architecture of this country is going to be. As per government regulations, all new construction anywhere across the country needs to be conform to the prescribed guidelines. Hence anywhere you look around you will see a uniformity in the architecture.
There are separate queues for Diplomats, Bhutan Nationals, SAARC nationals and Tourists. Only question asked, duration of stay. Got the Passport stamped; reached the lounge to claim the baggage and filled the customs form. The custom personnel asked if carrying cigarettes, electronic items, and then stamped and let us in.
Finally after all the paper work, we step out of the airport, and there we see a placard – Vinod and Ajomy – Norbu Bhutan Travels. Tensing Norbu informs us that he will be our guide, and quickly takes us to our carrier for our entire trip – a Hyundai Tucson.
After a 15 minutes drive, we are at the Paro market…It looks quite deserted, not many people, not many tourists. Since its our first break, too early to make any judgment yet, but are quite taken aback by the calmness, clean crisp mountain air and the non interfering attitude of the people. Being accustomed to hailed by vendors, children, beggars on any traffic signal, we were quite surprised to be let by ourselves. No one calling out to us, no one asking us to get into the store for a peek and buy stuff, nothing pleading no hustle. You are left to be by yourself.
After 20 minutes walking around, clicking snaps, we arrive at Hotel Jigmeling for our first lunch at Bhutan. We settle down for a cup of tea, and then get ready for buffet lunch. I pick the Kuesling the local newspaper, to get a feel of what’s happening around. A very mild newspaper, very simple and small accounts of some basic stuff happening. No provocations, no forced opinions, no barges into the private space.
We settle for peaceful lunch, when a group of elderly couples some 8-10 of them come over for lunch too. They bring about the needed animation to the hotel. We walk out after lunch to see the handicrafts store nearby; and hop into our carrier for our journey to Thimphu. It’s about a hour long drive; very very scenic. Though we are up that day since 4 am, and we want to doze off, we don’t want to miss a thing outside…
Our first halt was an iron bridge built by the Lama Iron Bridge, and supposedly in a day’s time. We get back on to our carrier and the see the confluence of Paro Chhu (means river) and Thimphu Chuu (it’ s also called Wang Chuu). Besides the confluence are three stupas, one Nepali, one Tibetan and one from Bhutan.
As we ascend up the hills, it gets chilly, we pass by vendors sitting on the road side selling farm produce, we pass by people walking on the streets, with no signs of habitation for long distances…and finally we reach Thimphu. A relatively busier city, with lots of big SUV and MUV zipping past the roads. Just opposite the Archery stadium is our hotel, Hotel Kisa.
We crash as soon as we see the inviting plush white beds.
Get up in the evening, we are ready to explore the city. We walk around, we reach the clock square. We spend some time there, we get a feel of the city from the clock tower. The streets are narrow, no traffic signal, no honking, no hoardings, no ads, rows of shops with just the names of the shops written above them. We check with a cop, and there we are the at the Swiss Bakery. We had noticed a other Indian mother and daughter asking for directions. While we settle down to have our coffee along with Swiss and cream rolls, we are pleasantly surprised to see the duo. It’s a small, world and an even smaller town…Lonely Planet mentions about the Swiss Bakery and so do lot of other travel accounts, so lot of tourists have it on their itinerary.
We get back to Hotel Kisa, and are treated to a lazed, elaborate sit down dinner. Thoroughly floored, we reach our rooms for our first night stay at Bhutan.
Chapter 7
Post breakfast, we head for the Takin Preserve; Takin is the national animal. Legend says that the Divine Madman, after consuming a cow and a goat, took the head of the goat and the body of a cow and made a Takin. We meet some Chinese tourists over there, who then had almost a similar itinerary as ours. We kept bumping into them quite often again.
As it was a Sunday, lots of other places on our itinerary were closed, so we head straight for the Thimphu Dzong. The first Dzong we ever saw, which also houses the administrative block, a monastery and place of worship. The king’s residence was nearby, and after security check we get into the Dzong. We remove our shoes and get into the place of worship and astonished by the architecture, paintings and the attention to detail there. A meaning and reason for everything and customs and rituals to accompany it too. We see the butter lamp and the paintings depicting the Buddhist legends and scriptures. Interesting Bhutanese way of building style, does not involve making blue prints before hand, they just keep building!!! And almost all the Dzong we visited were destroyed by the fire caused by butter lamp or by earthquake/floods. And all were created back in to its old glory.
After that we head to the city and a restaurant which gives a good view of the city. We order our first butter tea and beef paa; the butter tea is very special to the region and almost tastes like a soup instead of tea. Post that we head to the Chorten which was built memory of a king. We do some “Parikrama” ourselves. People from various walks of life, come to Chorten to pray, and that too very devoutly. We see our first beggar in Bhutan, an old man sitting by the gate. There were old men and women who were sitting beneath huge prayer wheels and rotating them, each turn, bringing them closer to salvation/nirvana.
We get a drop back to Hotel Kisa, we quickly get out for our last day of exploration of the city. We go to the Swiss Bakery again, walk around the city which is getting dark. Only some migrant Indian workers gives us some suspicious looks, the locals leave us to our privacy. We settle down dinner at Chopsticks, near the Main City, at the City Center complex. Well, I was under the impression that “momos” are in abundance in Bhutan. You just have to ask for it and there it would be. I was wrong, after many attempts we finally decided, we are not looking any more for “momos”.
There are mix of people on the streets; most of the old people are wearing the traditional kho and kira. The younger lot; some of them are in the traditional wear, but some are in the western outfits. Smoking is an offence, but still you see some girls and boys smoking near the clock square. There are a lot of expensive cars on the roads, and there a lot of pedestrians too. Old people too are on the streets and are carrying on with their usual chores. You see lot of young couples with toddlers neatly wrapped onto their back on the streets. Looks like there has been a baby boom there!!
Just two days old in Bhutan, we have started making our judgments, and have our favorites. Ajomy is quite interested in photography and manages whatever she can with a digital camera. She is almost there, she needs to upgrade to a Digital SLR soon.
We head back to our Hotel, surf the free Wi-Fi at hotel, watch local Bhutanese channels and doze off.
Chapter 8
Drive to Punakha after checking out from Hotel Kisa. It ‘s an uphill climb, and the weather gets chillier. The vegetation around us is changing and so is the landscape, the roads gets less crowded and we cross by hamlets on our way. We see a lot prayer wheels being rotated by water flowing down the cliffs and the whole of the hills covered with the religious prayer flags. Each color denoting one particular element like, earth, purity, victory and so on. Their belief says these prayer flags carry these prayers through the air into the skies; and thus a constant connect is formed between the earth and the sky.
We climb quite and we reach the highest point called the Dochula Pass. It’s definitely chilly here, I feel, yes finally we have arrived to a cold country. I like the misty feel of the mountains, the drifting fog, the chilly wind blowing, a limited visibility. There we see the one of the most beautiful spots in Bhutan, Druk Wangal Chorten, a collection of 108 stupas. We walk around, we click photographs, we view the valley from there, we don’t feel like leaving.
A few meters ahead is the Dochula Cafeteria, where we settle down for our modest lunch, and a cup of hot tea.
Then from there on it’s a steady descend, and quite a zig zag way down. We both doze off and when we wake up, we are almost there at Punakha. At Punakha you can see the male (Pho) and the female (Mo) Chhu coming together. You can actually see the difference in the colors of the water; and the Punakha Dzong is situated at the confluence of the two. Punakha is also famous for the temple of fertility, in honor of the Divine Madman. The male phallus is seen painted on most of the entrances to houses, as it is a sign of fertility. In fact in the temple of fertility, for which we need to hike along through the village and the fields, the bow and arrow, the phallus and the holy water is used for blessing the devotees.
Our resort Damchen resort, is besides the river, the place is warmer than Paro and Thimphu. While we were staying at Thimphu we had seen an elderly couple, probably in their late 40’s who also shared the same hotel like us. We used to bump into them for dinner and breakfasts. We were quite happy to see them again at Punakha. They were Brazilian, and were on a month long circuit of Bhutan, Tibet, Nepal and India. Unfortunately when we bid good bye to them at Punakha, that was the last time we saw them.
There was another group of American biker couples on Enfield bikes who had driven from Thimphu to Punakha and now were on their way to Bhumtang valley. That would mean, a nine hour drive to the place. The throttle of the Enfield bikes was definitely very tempting. We see the mother and daughter duo again here at the resort.
We have our room on the topmost floor, and the only room on that floor. We enjoy the view from the room.
Chapter 9
By the time we drive from Punakha to Paro after lunch at Thimphu, it’ s almost evening. On our way back we stop over at Dochula Pass; the weather is much clearer with a lot more visibility. However, the Himalayas still remain elusive as before. We can’t still get over the place, but need to carry on. The museum at Paro, is a treasure trove, but then since we are late, we get to see only some sections, as it was pith dark in some parts. The museum right now, was actually a watch tower earlier. From the museum, you get a breathtaking view of the city. For that matter anywhere where we met, we did get some breathtaking views. The country is so scenic, that you can sit and see the time go by…
We get back to our resort, Tashi Phuntshok, where we get the best of the service so far. We have Masala tea with pakoras on their patio; we see the sunset, and we hear the faint sound of music from the Dzong. Almost sunset, the hills are lit up with the lights from the houses and settlements on the slopes, the weather is getting a little chilly, you can hear the river gushing, and from a distance a faint hum of the oriental chant from the Dzong. While you sip the tea, and stand on the patio, this what you get to experience. Priceless.
We have an early start next day, as we have the hike up to the Tiger’s nest. Even before we reached Bhutan, I had read a lot of reviews on how breathtaking is the view and the ultimate experience. At the same time, there was an equal debate as to how difficult is the climb. If all can really make it to the top. The climb, the terrain, the altitude, the physical and mental grit, and other factors decide whether you can make it to the top. So, while we were driving to the base from were need to trek all the way up, the Tiger’s nest perched on top of the hill, looked daunting. I had read an account on Lonely planet which said ‘I am forty, truck driver and a chain smoker, I did it, so can you’.
We started hiking, the trek caught more and more stepper as we progressed. But it was great to see how far we had reached from the base camp so far. But when we used to look at the Tiger’s nest, it still looked tiny and very far away. We were taking breaks, on route and though we found very few others till hiking up till about a stage. There were old men and women who were coming down after the hike, and an even more encouraging number going up. We definitely qualified as one of the youngest climbing up; so we were sure, if they can we too will. Ajomy took a horse-back ride from 400-700 meters, then continued by herself. Once you reach the cafeteria, it then is a 50 mins trek from there. But the feel when you get there, it is euphoric. Having trekked all the way up, you reach a point where you are at the same level as the Tiger’s Nest. You can see the it eye to eye, what looked tiny from the bottom appears do-able. Plus the view, the weather and feeling of conquest, it cannot be equaled.
From that point, there were a lot of fellow travelers, with us and all experiencing the physical exertion and at the same time the euphoria. We met a Italian group, in which one lady was on her 3 rd visit to Bhutan, and all three times she came up to the Tiger’s nest. She was definitely in her 50’s at least. And she had come to India many times, and had been to Bangalore many a times. They were thrilled and clapped to know that we were honeymooners; and clapped and cheered us. They could not believe that we had an 100% pucca arranged marriage; well the lady who was chatting with me said, ‘’Love marriage no good either”; and both of us thought ‘c’est la vie’…
We hike down, and on our way back, I am amazed the amount of distance we hiked up. It looks really a task.
We reach the city pick a bottle of wine and vodka for our guide and our driver. We are leaving the next day.
Chapter 10
Early morning we are transferred to the Paro airport; and Tensing wishes us both a ‘happy and safe life’. Tashi Delek. The exit is more smoother, we get our passports stamped. We wait in the lounge and see a lot of our co travelers are those whom we met at during our stay in Bhutan. And some who traveled with us from Kolkata to Paro. It was a warm feeling of camaraderie, of having shared a similar experience while in Bhutan. You feel, just step out of your country and you see much of diversity, and that ‘s just a small slice of the world. Imagine how much more the world has to offer. Unlimited.
Calcutta, airport is as crowded, as the railway station, I presume because of Durga Pooja. We have a 5 hour transit time, and it is definitely quite a below average airport in terms of cleanliness and facilities. I stick to my book, ‘God’s mischief’ by M Mukundan. Oh what a book, it was a delight to read it. And imagine it’s an translation from Malayalam to English. Imagine how much more you can relish it in the original language.
Just minutes before I land at the Bangalore airport I finish the book.
